Murphy portrays a university professor, Sherman Klump, a lovable professor who is morbidly obese. A research scientist, academic, and lecturer, Klump develops a miraculous, but experimental, weight-loss pharmaceutical, and, hoping to win the affection of the girl of his dreams, tests it upon himself. Like the original film's Julius Kelp, Klump's trim, stylish, but arrogant alter ego takes the name "Buddy Love". Murphy plays a total of seven characters in the film, including Sherman, most of Sherman's family (except for his nephew, Ernie Klump Jr. played by actor Jamal Mixon), and an over-the-top parody of Richard Simmons.

The film received positive reviews, with critics particularly praising the makeup and Murphy's performance. The film's success spawned a sequel, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, which was released in 2000. The film was re-released on Blu-ray combo pack on March 6, 2012, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Universal Studios.[citation needed]

Contents

At Wellman College, thousands of hamsters overrun the campus, due to the massively obese, yet loving and kind-hearted, professor Sherman Klump (Eddie Murphy), who accidentally releases them due to his wide belly always accidentally hitting the button when he turns around. Meanwhile, Sherman has constructed an experimental formula that reconstructs human DNA in a way that allows them to lose weight instantaneously.

After class, Sherman meets and instantly falls in love with Carla Purty (Jada Pinkett-Smith), a chemistry graduate student who is serving as a chemistry teacher and is a big fan of his work. After dinner with his obese, impolite family (all played by Murphy), Sherman asks Carla out on a date, which she accepts, much to Sherman's surprise. The date begins well with Carla showing admiration for Sherman's work, but the club's obnoxious comic Reggie Warrington (Dave Chappelle) publicly humiliates him about his weight. Sherman becomes depressed and has a nightmare in which he becomes a rampaging giant and wrecks the city with a single fart that is ignited to cause an explosion. He tests his serum on himself and loses 300 pounds in seconds. Overwhelmed by his thinness, he goes out and buys copious amounts of normal-sized clothing to celebrate, and a $47,000 Viper sports car on his faculty expense account.

To conceal his true identity, Sherman adopts a fake name, "Buddy Love", and invites Carla out on a date at the same club again (while the serum begins to wear off). Reggie is present again and Buddy takes revenge and heckles him mercilessly. Sherman's "Buddy" persona starts to develop an independent personality due to the heightened testosterone levels of the transformation, causing him to be overly assertive and confident. Klump's assistant Jason witnesses Buddy fleeing the scene after he is identified as the person who left Klump's credit card on the bar. Jason follows Buddy and witnesses the transformation back into Klump.

The next morning, Dean Richmond (Larry Miller) has set up a meeting with wealthy Harlan Hartley (James Coburn) at The Ritz to have Sherman explain the serum in the hopes of gaining Hartley's $10 million donation to the science department. Sherman arrives at The Ritz as Buddy with Carla. When the dean spots him, Carla asks Buddy if he will take Sherman's place. He does, and he takes all the credit of his work to Hartley. Hartley and the dean are very impressed, and the dean invites him to the Alumni Ball the next night. Meanwhile, Buddy picks up three beautiful women, much to Carla's anger who dumps him and walks out. He then invites the three women back to his place for the night so he can have sex with them.

After the falling out with Carla, Richmond gleefully telling Sherman that Buddy will be taking his place at the Alumni Ball, and seeing a taunting video tape from his alter ego, Sherman has had enough. He and Jason destroy all of the serum samples. Sherman plans to set things right with Carla and get the grant from Hartley. Unfortunately, Buddy has planned for this and hidden a sample in one of Sherman's diet shake cans, which Sherman drinks, causing him to transform into Buddy again. Jason tries to stop him from going to the ball, but Buddy knocks him out and departs.

At the ball, Buddy demonstrates the effects of the serum to the audience, but Jason arrives in time, as he has found out that Buddy's testosterone levels are at a lethally high 60,000%. Buddy plans to drink a large sums of the potion to get rid of Sherman for good. Jason knows that if he drinks it, it will kill Sherman and possibly Buddy. The two of them get into a brief fistfight, but Sherman begins to fight Buddy from within. Sherman eventually transforms into his regular self and admits to the shocked audience, including his parents, of his misdeeds, that Buddy was who he thought he and everybody else wanted him to be, and that he should accept himself for who he is. As he leaves, Carla stops him and asks why he lied; he says he did not believe that she would accept him, but she says it doesn't matter if he is overweight or not. Sherman and Carla share a dance and Hartley gives the donation to Sherman because he is "a brilliant scientist and a gentleman."

While the film was made with the help of Jerry Lewis (he was an executive producer for both this film and the 2000 sequel The Klumps), he later recanted his position in an interview in the January 30/February 6, 2009 edition of Entertainment Weekly magazine. He was quoted as saying, "I have such respect for Eddie, but I should not have done it. What I did was perfect the first time around and all you're going to do is diminish that perfection by letting someone else do it."[4][5]

The Nutty Professor has received positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 65% based on reviews from 54 critics.[6]Metacritic gave the film a score of 62 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[7]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 stars out of 4, calling it "a movie that's like a thumb to the nose for everyone who said [Murphy had] lost it. He's very good. And the movie succeeds in two different ways: it's sweet and good-hearted, and then again it's raucous slapstick and bathroom humor. I liked both parts."[8]Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B+, writing "You can feel Murphy rediscovering his joy as a performer. He rediscovers it, too, as Sherman Klump, a fellow who, much like Murphy, is on the bottom rung, desperate to reinvent himself, and — at long last — does."[9]